Chapter 165 Chapter 163 What a Mess
Joe Ga didn't linger long in the village strewn with corpses, nor did he blame the soldiers who had come from Bangassou. Instead, he found the officer with the red cap and asked him to stay and help bury the bodies.
The officer with the red cap, facing Joe Ga's not so strict instructions, behaved like a bewildered student, nodding incessantly to show he understood, and then started loudly calling the gathered soldiers to help clean up the corpses on the ground and used trucks to transport the wounded to the nearest medical center. The previous arrogance and ferocity were no longer present.
Under everyone's gaze, Joe Ga and his company boarded the vehicle and drove toward the base.
The first day out of the base was thrilling for Joe Ga. But it also gave him a profound understanding of the circumstances surrounding him.
The so-called 'God-forsaken place' by Westerners wasn't truly forsaken by God. It was just that the financial and political tactics they excelled at encountered numerous obstructions here.
The African people, following in the footsteps of the West, learned their democracy, and then, with the unique cultural environment of Africa, used magic to defeat magic, dissolving the grand money-making schemes of those people.
When this place turned into a fetid morass of blood and flesh, only vultures and hyenas were willing to come.
They would take away the most valuable things here, bringing out some 'kindred' of a different skin color, leaving behind chaos and destruction.
Joe Ga wasn't near to being great yet. He wasn't thinking about saving anyone, couldn't inspire those around him with his morals, and certainly couldn't change the local ecology with political means...
At this stage, he could only use violence to combat violence. He might not be able to solve problems with it, but he could eliminate the people creating those problems!
However, different motives could lead to drastically different outcomes!
Joe Ga needed the right enemies to establish the right image for himself.
Right now, he was quite grateful to Mary Aenola. That woman had found him a bunch of good enemies.
On the drive back, Old Niu didn't forget to haul away the vegetables he had ordered.
Then, he led Joe Ga and the others to drive nearly 130 kilometers northwest, coming to a cattle farm on the outskirts of Bangassou.
Joe Ga could clearly feel that after getting closer to Bangassou, there were more people on the road.
Over a hundred kilometers, which at home on the highway is just a press on the accelerator; however, in the Central African Republic, it becomes like a natural moat due to the dense jungles and rugged roads bordering it—intrinsic barriers that make the difference between heaven and hell.
Once you are more than 50 kilometers away from the city, closer to the China-Congo border, safety decreases significantly.
In fact, once inside the 50-kilometer range, the security isn't much better.
This unfortunate place, under sanctions, was filled with the presence of armed personnel all along the way. Some even brazenly set up roadblocks on the highways to charge fees from all vehicles transporting goods.
They didn't randomly kill people, but their extortion was still backed by guns.
These weren't government forces but a mishmash claiming to be opposition parties in the Central African Republic, representing various tribes, or even factions that had broken away from those tribes.
If they were dissatisfied with the results of an election, the president failed to fulfill promises made to them, or if their leader felt they had been slighted in some affair, they would transform overnight into the root of unrest.
There was no point in reasoning. Most countries in the Central African region were like this. Currently, only Rwanda and Uganda were somewhat better, although they also had difficulty once outside the city limits. They might not be as chaotic, but the poverty was certainly real!
Information about Joe Ga's two mining operations in Burundi had been circulating among the mine bosses for some time.
To date, those people had yet to make up their minds. If this were in Uganda or Rwanda, there should already have been people asking about prices or even going directly to inspect the sites.
But with the upcoming elections in Burundi, those fellows also had to watch the wind direction, after all, the investment in mining is substantial.
After touring the cattle farm with Old Niu, Joe Ga found that they were selling African water buffalo. The larger ones went for 350 US dollars, the smaller ones for 300 US dollars. If you spotted one you liked, you could just take it away. If you needed butchering services, that would be an extra 10-dollar fee.
The primitive cattle farm smelled terrible. Joe Ga, dragged along by Old Niu to meet the farm's boss, somewhat disinterestedly signed a long-term supply contract. He managed to slash the price by 20 dollars, then hurriedly took Old Niu and drove towards Bangassou, where Dorian and the others had been taken to the hospital.
'Hemostatic Forceps' was only a medic, not a regular doctor, and without equipment, she simply couldn't perform surgery on her own.
The 'Doe' armed with rocket pods landed in the courtyard of Bangassou Hospital, alarming the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Bangassou.
On the road, Joe Ga had notified Mary Aenola, asking her to send people over to take care of matters.
By the time he arrived, he saw 'Fat Goose' and 'Wrench' 'escorting' several French blue helmets onto a vehicle with universally recognized hand gestures.
And the South American female mercenary 'Kitten' was being intercepted by an African professional woman dressed in a black business suit and wearing glasses, as if terrified she might do something irrational. The expression on 'Kitten's' face indicated she was very angry.
Watching a French blue helmet lieutenant make obscene gestures at 'Kitten' before boarding the vehicle, unclear what was being said, but definitely not saying 'hello'...
Seeing this situation, Joe Ga didn't hesitate...
"Hit them."
Upon hearing Joe Ga's command, Karman glanced at his seat belt, then floored the accelerator and charged forward.
From the entrance of the hospital to the French blue helmets, it was just a 30-meter distance. As the pickup issued a harsh turning noise, followed by a 'boom', the French blue helmets' armored troop carrier, with its back door left open, was hit so it could never be closed again.
Not wanting to provoke the blue helmets meant not doing things like attacking civilians to incite regional conflicts or inflame racial tensions, but it didn't mean Joe Ga was afraid of them.
Joe Ga's mercenary contract was signed with the Central African Republic, but it was also endorsed by the African Union, legal and legitimate in black and white, with Eric the lawyer displaying considerable professionalism in this area.
Although Joe Ga's arms deals here were somewhat flawed, that was something that could be argued about at length, as there were plenty of loopholes to exploit in both international law and African local laws.
Besides, as a sovereign nation inviting a helpful mercenary to assist in eradicating drug traffickers and contribute to the development of the African Union, should they really report to the United Nations for bringing some weapons?
The reason Karman hit the armored vehicle was because Joe Ga felt his people had been bullied.
This could not be tolerated; just a few hours ago, he had asked his people if they would obey his commands with hot blood, but now he would slap himself in the face if he remained indifferent to the insult inflicted on his own people.
Moreover, the blue helmets were really not that scary. Joe Ga respected his own blue helmets, not these French ones. The disgusting deeds these people had done in Central Africa had made international news.
Watching a Frenchman, scared by the collision, shrink inside the vehicle with his legs curled up and raised in mid-air.
Joe Ga got out of the car, took off his gun and tactical vest and threw them inside the vehicle, then said to Karman in the driver's seat and Nis in the back seat, "Don't take the long guns."
After that, Joe Ga walked from the back of the vehicle to the front, looked down at the collision spot, shook the deformed armored vehicle door that had been hit, and then, pointing his finger lightly, he said with a mocking tone, "I will file a complaint, and then I'll send you a bill.
If you don't foot the bill, I guarantee that every time you deploy, you will have an accident, and then your headquarters will receive a strongly worded complaint from the Central African Ministry of Defense every day,
Oh, it seems that the commander of the Central African Peacekeeping Forces is Russian. I think he would be more than happy to see you strip off your military uniform and roll back to your farm to wallow with the sows because that's all you are good for."
The tall, thin officer looked at Joe Ga's arrogant demeanor, stepped forward with a cold sneer almost touching Joe Ga's face, and said, "Who do you think you are?"
As he spoke, the tall, thin officer looked at the cold sneer on Joe Ga's face, pondered for a few seconds, took a step back, took off his cap, and threw it inside the vehicle, then gestured to Joe Ga, saying, "If you're really so tough, why don't we have a match?
If you win, I'll let you go; if you lose, you'll come to our base and be our guest for a few days."
Joe Ga glanced at the soldiers around the armored vehicle who were beginning to reach for their guns, sneered with a grin, and said, "Is this your little trick? Why don't you take off your shoulder and sleeve insignia if you want to fight?"
The tall, thin officer hesitated, then took off his shoulder and sleeve insignia and threw them on the vehicle, then lifted his chin provocatively and said, "How about now?"
No sooner had the tall, thin officer finished speaking than he was horrified to find that the machine gun beneath the 'Doe' helicopter parked in the open area had turned and was now aiming in his direction.
Then, from two trucks and another pickup, jumped more than a dozen fully armed, extremely lean soldiers, with four fierce-looking African soldiers even having disengaged the safety on their AK74Us…
Sanderson came over with 'Torch' and 'Impact', grinning and saying, "If there's going to be a fight, I'm in!"
Joe Ga looked back and took a step backward, then said to the tall, thin officer, "Now it's fair. I guarantee that as long as your men don't shoot, we definitely won't shoot.
Of course, I will write a complaint about your provocation against me and hand it to your superior."
With that, Joe Ga gestured to the panicked black female elite to come closer, and when she approached him, he asked, "What did Mary Aenola tell you to do?"
Looking at the tall, thin officer in a dilemma, the black female staff member looked at Joe Ga somewhat panicked and said, "I, our minister asked me to cooperate with you fully~"
As if he hadn't heard her clearly, Joe Ga cocked his ear and loudly said, "What are you saying? Who's your minister? Speak up, can't she be seen by people?"
In a panic, the female staff member waved her hands and said, "Our minister is Mary Aenola, the current Defense Minister of the Central African Republic, she, she asked me to assist you."
Joe Ga glanced at the officer with the sudden ashy face and asked again, "What did you just see?"
The female staff member glanced at the tall, thin officer, struggled with herself for a moment, then lowered her head and said, "I saw them crash into your car..."
A bit displeased, Joe Ga gestured and said louder, "What's that? Speak up, my ears aren't so good."
Now the female staff member remembered her boss's solemn instructions and decided to throw caution to the wind…
"I saw this French lieutenant order his armored vehicle to hit your vehicle, causing you significant damage.
I will immediately report to Minister Ainola, ensuring that we will recover your losses.
At the same time, I will report what I just saw, including the inappropriate advances against Ms. 'Kitten' and the series of provocations against you, and as the Central African Ministry of Defense, I will call the United Nations blue helmet headquarters and the commander of the blue helmets stationed in Central Africa, demanding immediate accountability from the parties involved."
Satisfied with the response, Joe Ga nodded, glancing at the increasingly panicked French blue helmets and the officer turning darker by the second, then turned around with a smile and took the tactical vest and rifle from Sanderson, patting him forcefully on the shoulder, and said, "Beat him up!
The hospital is just behind us, let him get carried in on a stretcher!"